Ms. Cindy Ausec, a PhD
candidate working jointly in the Near Eastern Studies Department at UC
Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union, spoke to the chapter about
“Gods Who Hear Prayers; Personal Piety in Ancient Egypt”

Ms. Ausec opened her lecture by noting that
Egyptologists use various definitions of what constitutes personal piety.
Geraldine Pinch defined it as “individual’s relationship with one or more
deities” while popular religion is the religion practiced by Egyptians in
every day life.

The official temple cults in Ancient Egypt were
carried out by the king who was assisted by the high priests. One of the
king’s primary functions was to propitiate the gods as a means of keeping
the universe in balance. Each temple celebrated festivals as part of this
process of pleasing the gods and maintaining Ma’at (truth, justice and
essential harmony in the universe), and it is believed that common people
were able to enter the forecourts of these temples. The holiest precincts
were open only to the king and the high priests.

The great state temples in Ancient Egypt were
constructed as places in which a particular manifestation of a god was
thought to reside – his/her house. Egypt’s populace could access the
forecourt of the temples, but deeper regions of the temple were accessible
only to those from among the royal or priestly sectors. Egyptian temples
were constructed with several succeeding courts and halls, each elevated
slightly high than the last, and each smaller and more intimate. Each
succeeding court or sanctuary was thought to go deeper into time and
closer to the realm of the gods, until the holy-of-holies was reached,
where the manifestation of the god resided. The temple represented the
‘cosmos’ with stars on the ceiling to represent the heavens, columns
represented the papyrus and lotus plants of Upper and Lower Egypt, and the
holy-of-holies representing the original primeval mound of creation.

When offering scenes are found on temple walls, it
is always the king who is offering to the god, for it is his
responsibility to assure that Ma’at stays in balance, and chaos is kept
out. Festivals are also recorded on temple walls, and the god Min often
appears in full form. Usually, however, the god proceeds within his/her
shrine, and is “unseeable” to human eyes. The exterior walls of temples
are frequently decorated with battle scenes, which were thought to help
keep evil from entering.

Local temples served a village, town or small city
and were often dedicated to a local god. Deir el-Medina is an excellent
example for a number of local temples and shrines have survived. At least
32 different cult buildings were excavated at this site, surrounding
exterior walls of the main temple. Many are no more than small shrines,
with benches, perhaps for worship, or perhaps for the placement of
ancestor busts. Regardless of how they were used, we have lots of
evidence for personal piety from them. Votive stelae have been excavated
from some, as well as model “hearing ears”, which can also appear on
stelae, allowing ordinary people to speak directly to the god. Votive
ostraca which had been placed in some of the kings’ tombs survive. They
contain messages to the gods. The king is asked to convey the message
directly to the god in question. Penitential hymns allowed an individual
to offer the hymn on behalf of himself or another, as in the case of a
hymn donated by Neb-ra for his son Nakhtamun. The son was
seriously ill – “sick unto death” – because of his cow. The god was asked
to heal him. James Henry Breasted was one of the first to talk about
Neb-Ra. The penitential hymn seems to have emerged as a New Kingdom
phenomena. However, there are signs that personal piety goes as far back
in Egyptian history as the Old Kingdom, per John Baines. Personal piety
is also reflected in personal names – as in Khui-wi-Ptah ‘May Ptah
rescue him’.

Patron “saints” such as the deified Pharaoh Amenhotep
I, and his mother, Queen Ahmose-Nefertari, were highly venerated
especially at Deir el-Medina. A supplicant was able to ask the god to
decide, for example, a legal dispute. The cult statue was brought forth
from the temple by the priests and a procession allowed commoners to
approach the god with their questions. A question was posed and the
priests were impelled by the god to move toward an “answer” – for example,
forward if the answer was yes. Sometimes the god was asked to identify a
person or thing involved in a dispute, and the image moved in a direction
which indicated guilt or innocence.

Amun-Re is first attested delivering oracles during
the reigns of Hatshepsut and Thutmosis III, choosing each as ruler. When
the god went forth in procession the common people were allowed to appeal
directly to the deity. The king was no longer always the intermediary.
The question arises as to whether the individual is addressing the state
god or a local manifestation. Per Ms. Ausec, there are varying opinions
among Egyptologists.

Egyptologist believe that individual people were, as
noted previously, allowed into the forecourt of large state temples, and
appropriate purity warnings were posted at the entrances to the more
sacred areas. A Rekhet or lapwing bird represented the common
people and signaled where they could be within the temple. Most
frequently when the Rekhet are depicted in an attitude of
adoration, it is of the king, vice the god. The only known example of
Rekhet revering a god’s name is at Luxor in a triple bark shrine
erected by Queen Hatshepsut.

Types of sites which were available for acts of
personal piety include:

Images with special features, such as the inlaid
eyes of an Osiris image or an image of Ptah inlaid with faience and
metal;

Images with drill holes around the image which may
have held up a veil or barrier, as can be seen with a depiction of
Khonsu on the side of Ramesses II Triple Bark Shrine at Luxor;

Graffiti associated with a god who hears prayers,
normally done by priests or individuals, as in ex-votto graffiti related
to an image restored by Menkheperra;

Formal sites for hearing prayers, referred to a
hearing ears; these are images of gods with specific titles that include
“who hears prayers” as can be found in the eastern temples at Karnak or
the contra-shrine at Kom Ombo.

At Karnak Temple seated scribal statues of Amenhotep
son of Hapu and Paramesses were placed by Pylon X to hear prayers for Amun
(however no votive stelae have been found). Thutmosis III and Ramses II
both installed places for hearing of prayers, accessible to ordinary
people. Thutmosis III erected a temenos wall around the Amun-re temple
when he enlarged it. On the outside of the eastern side he has a solid
alabaster block inserted into the wall which originally had two gods
depicted (possibly Amun-Re and Amunet, we’re not sure who). This block
ensured that a supplicant could speak directly to the god, or to the king
who would in turn convey the supplicants request to the god on his/her
behalf.

Also at the eastern end of Karnak Temple Bekenkhons
constructed the temple of ‘Ramses-Meriamun who hears prayers”. An
individual would say his prayer to the king who would then pass the prayer
to Amun-Ra. However on the north side of the temple is an image of
Amun-Re with the epithet “Amun-Re who hears prayers.”

During the Greco/Roman period, Trajan established a
hearing ear, originally with the goddess, Ma’at to hear prayers at Kom
Ombo. Kom Ombo was a temple dedicated to both Horus and Sobek, both of
which also appear on the hearing ear along with a hymn to them.

At Medinet Habu there is a hearing ear in the high
gate. The temple is dedicated to Amun-Ra and the deified Ramses III, but
the god of hearing is Ptah. We know that the high gate on the eastern
side of the temple was only used during festivals. Day-to-day entry into
the temple precinct was through the western gate. In a niche on the south
side of the eastern gate is a depiction of Ptah. He is standing in a
shrine lined with metal and the figures of Ptah and Sekhmet are surrounded
with drill holes for a veil or barrier around their image. His titles
make it very clear who and what he is doing there, and indicates that he
hears prayers. Ms. Ausec was particularly interested in how often and in
what manner Ptah was treated in other parts of the temple and wondered if
there was a pattern to the placement of his images. Thus, she tracked all
the gods in the temple, their treatment and their placement. One of the
first things she noted is a hymn to Ptah on the first pylon in which the
king refers to Ptah as his father. Ramses III has copied a blessing of
Ptah originally composed under Ramesses II. She also found that Ptah
receives offerings at 32 different locations throughout the temple, not
just at the entrance to the 1st pylon and in a small chapel
devoted to him within the temple precinct. There are other manifestations
of Ptah as well. Ms. Ausec also found that presentations of Ptah
receiving Ma’at, occurred predominately on the south side of the temple in
the second court and in chapel 2 on northern side of the inner sanctuary
of the temple. Most often, Ptah is “living in the mansion” when he is
also receiving Ma’at. The presentation of Ma’at occurs everywhere in the
temple, except in the forecourt, where all the scenes related to war and
battles are found. In the second court, Ptah receives Ma’at on the south
side and on the north are images of Amun-Re receiving Ma’at. Near the
gate of the temple on the north is an image, mentioned as a site of
popular supplication by Charles Nims, in which Amun-Ra is receiving Ma’at
and three Ptah images surround him.

Other iconography of interest at the main gate at
Medinet Habu, are the Rekhet birds which flank the king’s window of
appearances in adoration of the king’s name. These images seem to be the
same as those at Ramses II’s Eastern Temple – praying to the king who
refers prayers.

“Living in the mansion” appears 49 times in the
temple, 13 times associated with Ptah, and 13 times associated with
Amun-Re. Images of Ptah are clustered around areas of popular
supplication. Clearly, Ptah was important to the Ramesides. Hearing ears
here, functioned just as they did at Karnak temple.

Personal
piety in ancient Egypt was clearly an important part of the lives of most
Egyptians. The state made numerous opportunities available for ordinary
people to approach the gods either directly or via the king.